Washington State Community Transformation Grants (CTG): Lessons learned in developing cross-sector partnerships for sustainable change

Background/Purpose:

In Washington State, there are seven CTG funded programs: two Implementation, two Capacity Building, two Small Communities and one through a National Network. Creating healthy communities throughout the state requires coordinated priority setting, communication and multi-level partnerships. However, funding structures, agency priorities and diverse community needs can make coordination difficult. Through consistent cross-sector communication and gap analysis, Washington is leveraging CTG for sustainable change. Based on early lessons learned, other grantees can strengthen their approach to cross-sector partnership building to leverage existing and future funds.

Methods: Monthly calls with a shared agenda are conducted with all CTG sites. These calls allow for stronger connections through sharing of lessons learned, common barriers and solutions.

Additional partnership occurs through gap analysis in subject focus areas and Common Agenda setting for leadership teams.

Results: Implementation at the local level has been strengthened through coordination, leading to partnerships that expand each awardee's work across the state. In the presentation, several examples will be discussed.

Conclusions: CTG awardees risk duplicating efforts and less than effective work if they do not make substantive steps towards thorough gap analysis of works in progress. Cross-sector coordination is essential to leveraging partnerships for long term change in diverse communities. Dedicated staff time and intentional partnerships are needed to pursue common agendas across funding streams and to leverage current funding. Through partnership across sites, Washington will continue building on these successes and develop new opportunities to reduce health disparities and create sustainable, healthy changes for all communities.